Vegetable stalk cutter and grader



Feb. 26, 1935.

Y 2 shets sheet 1 6 v v 15 18 7Z0 Feb. 26, 1935. p BONVALLET 7 1,992,688

VEGETABLE STALK CUTTER AND GRADER Filed Sept. 23, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 26, 1935 1 992 63 UNITED STATES PATENT} OFFiECEA I 1,992,688 I I v VEGETABLE STALK CUTTER ANU RADER Maurice P.'Bonvallet, St. Anne, 111. Application September 23, 1932, Serial at. 634,509

13 Claims. (Cl. 146-165) My invention .relates to a machine for cutting vention herein chosen for purposes of this disvegetable stalk crops, such as asparagus, rhubarb closure as the representation of one commerand celery, into a predetermined number of cuts cial, practicable form of the invention. for each length of stalk, and for simultaneously Briefly, in this selected form, the machine congrading or sorting the several cuts into segregated structed in accordance with the principles of my -5 accumulations of like cuts. invention, comprises an appropriate stand on.

Such cutting of each stalk into a number of whichis carried arotary head or drum that turns cuts is required in the canning industry where on a vertical axis and is provided with spaced, difierent grades of a stalk crop are put up for slotted ways into which projects a set ofvertical- 0 the market; For instance, in the case of asparaly spaced stationary, horizontallydisposed gus it is desirable to sever the stalk into four knives. These knives cooperate :with vertical cuts as follows: the tip out, two intermediate cuts, pockets in the head that receive a loose bundle and a butt end cut, which latter usually repreof stalks and carry the same to the knives so that sents waste. the stalks will each be severed into a plurality In the past, conveyer types of machines have of lengths or cuts, some of the knives including 15 been employed in this connection, an operator means for causing the severed lengths'to be car having to lay the stalks in moving conveyer' ried farther in the path of movement than certroughs that carry the same to the cutters distain other cuts. This makes it possible to disposed at the discharge end of the conveyer. Such charge like cuts at the same points in the path machines, while commercially satisfactory, have of movement of the drum. At such points, chutes 20 proven costly and dangerous in use as they emare located to receive the discharging cuts and ploy'rotary knives to cut the stalks. direct them to segregated-pilesor in receptacles My present invention provides'a machine of a standing on the ,floor adjacent the machine. different type in that it employs stationary knives Meansis also provided for .automatically alining which are not exposed and cannot cause physical the stalks before they-are cut.f So much will 25 injury to the hand feeders, the machine also besufiicefor the present, and attention is'now di ing capable of cutting a bunch of stalks at one rected to the accompanying sheets of. drawings, time instead of each stalk-severally, thereby main which: terially speeding up the rate of cutting. I Figure *1 isa top plan view of the machine with With this general survey of the art, itis the a cover removed to illustrate interior parts; 30; primary object of my invention to provide an Figure 2 isa side elevational view of the maimproved stalk cutting machine of the kindspechine; t t cified, which will be far simpler than machines Figure. 3- is a top planview with the rotary now in use, andthereby cheaper to manufacture. head removed; e 1

,1 Another object-is to provide such a machine em- Figure 4 is a side detail, sectional View through 35 ploying stationary cutters that may operate on the lowerend of one of the stalk holdingpockets,

a bunch of stalks at one time to speed up the showinga trap door feature;

cutting operation, to save time and expense; the Figure 5' is a bottom view of the trap door;

cuttersbeing positioned where they cannot in- Figure 6 is a detail sectional, side view, as jure theoperator feeding the stalks. seen along the line 66, appearing in Figure 1; 40

Still another object is to provide a novelstruc- .Figures 7, -8 and 9 are detail plan views of the ture for delivering the stalks to the stationary various stationary knives or cutters, employed.

knives. In one practicable, commercial form, the ma- A further object is to provide ,a novel form chine, asshown, includes a hollow base 10 carof knife including means in the combination that rying. a tubular standard 1 1 on the upper end 45 serves to separate the several cuts of a stalk and of which is carried a circular, horizontally disto cause their discharge from the machine into posed bed or plate-l2-formed with a peripheral, segregated accumulations of like cuts. arcuately shaped, marginal opening 13, extend- Another important object is to provide an autoing approximately through a semi-circle in said matically acting tip'alining' means for the stalks plate. v

so that uniform tip end cuts will result. To one side I, of the base 10 is a standard 14in Other important objects will be apparent as the the upper end of which is appropriately jourdisclosureprogresses. In the meanwhile these naled,*a horizontally disposed shaft 15 adapted important objects of the invention may be to be driven by a pulley wheel unit 16, said-shaft achieved bythe illustrative. example of the inpassingginto the hollow'base portion to driveirre- 55 versible worm gearing indicated in dotted lines at 1'7, this gearing, in turn, driving a vertical shaft 18, disposed in the upright standard 11.

Said shaft 18 projects upwardly of the bed plate 12 and has keyed to it, to be rotated thereby a cylindrically shaped drum, or rotary head 19, said head being provided with a plurality of vertically disposed, circular pockets 20, these pockets being arranged along the periphery of the plate 12, in appropriate angular spacing, so that as the drum 19 turns these pockets travel directly over the arcuate opening 13 heretofore described.

Adjacent the bottom ofeach pocket 20 the wall forming said pockets, is formed witha small boss 21 to which is hingedly connected a trap door 22, the underside of which isv formed with a cam shaped rib formation 23, said ribbing carrying remote from the door hinge, a loose roller.

24. The purpose scribed.

Carried beneath, and hung from the bed plate 12 are chutes 25, 26 and 27, disposed to catch the cut stalk portions, as hereinafter described, which fall through the arcuate opening 13, and at particular points therealongto be received and directed by the severalchutes or spouts to receptacles resting on the floor adjacent the machine.

The rotary drum or head 19 is cylindrical, as hasbeen described,-and may be formed as a onepiece casting, if desired, having radially extended, spaced slots 28 formed therein to extend from the circumference thereof,all the way around, and inwardly toward the radius of the circle and through each of the vertical pockets 20. The open top side of the drum 19 is covered by a circular plate 29, having short, circular sleeve extensions 30 to surround holes that register with the pockets 20. This plate or cover 29, of course, turnswith the drum 19.

The outside edge of the bed plate l2'is formed with a boss 31 carrying a series of verticalor superimposed blocks 32, as shown in Figure 2, said blocks being spaced apart by knives or stationary cutters 33, each knife having an ear 34 of these doors will later be de- (see Figures '7, 8 and 9) and bolt holes 35 to line up with registering holes in the boss 31 and blocks 32, so that bolts 36 may be dropped through the assembled structure to hold the parts together,-'and secure the knives in proper posi-' tion so that they will be located in the slots 28 of thedrum 19 andextend tangentially inward with respect to the drum so their cutting edges will present an obliquely disposed knife to stalks held in the pockets 20 and moved thereby against the knives. The oblique disposition of the knives just described, and best shown in Figure '1', makes for a good shearing or cutting action, as will latermore fully appear.

As shown-in Figure '2, the bottom-most knife 33 is narrow and of'a kind shown in Figure 7,

while the two intermediate knives 33 are of the kind shownin Figure 8, where it will be seen the knife has a long, horizontaL'arcuately disposed tail 37 extending clockwise from the blocks 32 to a point over the chute 26. The chute 25 is nearest the knife holders 32, it is to be noted, in the respect mentioned. Further, the top-most knife 33 is like that shown in Figure '3 9 and has a still longer horizontal, arcuatelydisposed tail 38'which terminates at a point above the farthest chute 2'7.

- As shown in Figures 1, 2 and 6the plate 12 has a portion of its top surface corrugated at 39 a short distance clockwise of the' knife boss 31 for a purpose presently to appear. All of the structural parts of the machine have now been described and the operation and function of the assembly will next be set forth.

Belt power is applied to the pulley 16 to drive the gearing 1'7 and shaft 18 in a direction to cause clockwise rotation of the cylindrical drum or head 19, as indicated by the arrow in Figure 1. One or more persons, known as feeders, grasp a loose untied, bundle of asparagus stalks, let us say, and place themhead ends first into any of the pockets 20, the raised portions 30 on the cover 29 surrounding each pocket serving as a guide. It is presumed the feeders will successively fill each pocket with stalks in the manner stated as the pockets pass or turn adjacent ging of the tip ends of the stalks across the stationary plate 12, to prevent damaging the stalks. As the pocket now approaches the vertical bank of spaced, stationary knives 33, the roller 24 on each door 22 must roll over the corrugations 39 in its path of movement, causing momentary, rapid vibration of the door automatically to aline or adjust the stalks in the pockets 30 that all tip ends will rest uniformly on the top surface of the door. This vibrating means insures then, that all stalk ends will be properly alined at their bottom ends just before they approach the knives 33.

Continuing the clockwise rotation of the head the pocket 20 with its alined stalks now reaches the knives 33 which are obliquely disposed to the oncoming bunch of stalks to cut them with a shearing action. 'Each stalk then will obviously be severed at as many points as there are knives; in the present machine four knives 33 being shown in Figure 2. Of course, the knife spacing, or the number of knives to be used, is optional and can be varied by providing different heads 19 of varying slot spacings 28. As the particular pocket 20 now has passed the knives 33, the stalks have been severed at four spaced points. The tip end of the asparagus in the form shown would be severed by the bottom knife 33 shown in Figure 2 and that portion below said bottom knife, andalso that portion of the tip end immediately above said bottom knife but below the second knife (from the bottom up) would instantly clear the bottom knife 33 because it has no tail of the kind heretofore described. (See Figure 7.) At the same instant the door 22 of this samepocket 20 reaches the long arcuate opening 13 in the plate 12, the hinge end 21 of the door passing over theend of the opening (see Figure 1) first, so that instantly the roller 24 of this door passes said edge, the door by its own weight drops suddenly to cause these two cuts to be discharged through the opening 13, this discharging action of the tip cuts being timed to take place directly over the chute 25 so that these special tip ends will be directed to a segregated pile or receptacle of their own. Of course, if only one long tip out is desired, then the bottom knife 33 would be eliminated. 1 1

The particular pocket continues to be carried around by the head, and those cuts of the stalks above the second from thebottom knife- 33 will arena-ass be carried along slidinglyaover the long/tail 37 on the 1WD intermediates-knives .331 untilt they drop off. the endiof said z-tails through the still open trap door, and the opening 13,..at. a'point directly over the second Lchute i 26 which :receiyes these two intermediatestalk cuts and directs them to their segregated pile zor receptacle.

The tail 3.8 on the ttopmostllmife 33 is the longest, as showniniFigures Land 3,;and therefore the butt end cut. abovethis .knife will be dragged or carried farther *in the angular, dis-.- tance of travel-across such a long tail .38. Thus, when the 'buttends, which by the way, -;-in the case of asparagus, would be waste, drop off the end'of the'tail38, "they fall through the still open trap door 22, and opening 13, to be caught by the chutez'l and separately accumulated. Continuing in this "turning movement of the drum now, allacuts have been separated and left the machine, thatis for the particular pocket 20 we have'been discussing. Accordinglmnow, the trap door cam 23. as shown Figure 4 :rides over the other .endof the opening 13 automatically to return said trap door to closed position, such position being maintained while the roller 24 thereof rides over the solid portion of the plate 12, as will now be understood. And so on, for each pocket 20, the feeders successively filling each pocket, the drum head turning at better than a hundred revolutions per minute. so it can readily be seen that a rapid rate of stalk cutting and separation of different cuts into like groups ocours.

The irreversible worm gearing 1'7, of course, makes it impossible to drive the drum in the wrong direction so that injury to the parts of the machine cannot result. Also the knives 33 being stationary and in an inexposed position it is virtually impossible for the feeders to cut their hands, thus providing a great factor of safety compared with the type of cutter employing movable knives. Further, the machine is simple, foolproof, and capable of performing its work at a high rate as bunches of stalks are simultaneously cut at one time. Thus, it will be seen that all of the desirable objects heretofore recited are achieved by this invention.

Obviously, the machine may assume many forms and variations in practice from the example herein selected for illustration. It is, therefore, the intention to cover all such changes, alterations, and modifications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of my invention, as indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a stalk cutter, a movable stalk carrying member including a vertical pocket for holding a bunch of stalks in erect position, a stationary horizontal knife in the path of movement of said member so that the knife severs the stalk, and means on the knife for supporting one cut of the stalk to be carried a distance by the carrying member and then discharged, while the other out is discharged substantially immediately upon being cut. 7

2. In a stalk cutter, in combination, a bank of stationary horizontal knives spaced vertically apart with their cutting edges in substantially the same vertical plane, a movable member for conveying stalks in erect position to said knives to be severed simultaneously into a plurality of cuts, and means for causing differing cuts to be discharged at different points in the movement of the member and like cuts to be discharged at the same points.

"3. l;n:a stalk cutter a stationary plate, a rotary head=carried thereabove and formed with means elongatedtopening therein,'the out below the knife dischargingfrom the machine through said opening substantially upon being cut, and means to cause the portion. above the knife to be carried along temporarily and dropped through 'said opening at another point.

A; :In'a stalk cutter :a stationary plate, a rotary head carried thereabove and formed with means to carry stalks in erect position, a vsubstantially horizontalknife :carried adjacent said head and having its cutting :edge disposed in the path of movement: of said stalks, whereby said stalks are severed into several-cuts, said plate having an elongated opening therein, the out below the knife discharging from the machine through said opening substantially upon being cut, and said knife having anelongated tail portion to support the portion of stalk above the knife, whereby the head carries that portion of the stalk along until it drops off the end of the tail to be discharged through said opening at another point.

5. In a stalk cutter, a rotary member, a bank of spaced stationary knives, said member having means for moving stalks against the knives to be severed, and means comprising supports of different lengths for causing different cuts to be discharged at different points of discharge, said machine discharging at a plurality of angularly spaced points.

6. In a stalk cutter, a rotary head formed with a plurality of spaced stalk receiving pockets, the stalks being held in substantially erect position, a plate beneath said head having an opening, a plurality of stationary knives arranged in spaced vertical relation and having cutting edges lying in substantially the same vertical plane and projected into the path of movement of saidpockets to sever the stalks therein, said knives having horizontal widths of varying degrees to cause the stalk cuts disposed thereabove to be carried to different angular points in the rotation of the head and to be discharged through the plate opening in a manner to cause similar cuts to discharge at the same point.

'7. In a stalk cutter, means to move a stalk in erect position along a circular path of movement, a series of spaced, horizontal, stationary knives in said path of movement to sever the stalk into a plurality of cuts, and tails on the knives of 8. In a stalk cutter, means to move a bunch of stalks in erect position along a path of movement, a support for said means having an opening below said means, a series of spaced, substantially horizontal knives in said path of movement and having stalk out supporting portions above said opening, said portions being longest in the uppermost knife and shortest in the lowermost knife.

9. In a stalk cutter, a table having an arcuate peripheral opening, a head rotatable above the table and provided with a pocket for carrying stalks erect, a bank of horizontal knives ar-- ranged in vertically spaced relation and having vertically alined cutting edges in the path of movement of the pocket, and horizontal supports extending one eachfrom each knife arcuately over the arcuate peripheral opening, the length of said supports being staggered with the longest uppermost and the shortest bottom-most.

10. In a stalk cutter, a table having an arcuate peripheralopening, a head rotatable abovethe table and provided with a pocket for carrying stalks erect, a bank of horizontal knives-arranged invertically spaced relation and having vertically alined cutting edges in the path of movement of the pocket, horizontal supports extending one each from each knife arcuately'overthe arcuate peripheral opening, the length of'said supports being staggered with the longest uppermost and the shortest bottom-most, and chutes leading from the arcuate. opening arranged to catch stalk cuts falling oifthe supports.

11. In a stalk cutter, in combination, a bank of'horizontalknives spaced vertically apart with their cutting'edges in substantially the same vertical plane, a movable member for conveying stalks in erect position to said knives to be severed into aplurality of cuts, and'horizontal members of different lengths adjacent the-knives in superimposed spaced relation for supporting cut portions of? the stalks located ther'eabove to be carried along by the movable member, said members being of difierent lengths with the longest on top and the shortest at the bottom, the cut portions falling ofi -the ends of the respective members to be discharged at different points.

12. In a stalk cutter, a movable member ineluding an upright stalk holding pocket, a hinged doorat the bottom of the pocket to support the stalks, a knife for cutting the stalks in the pocket, a horizontal table over which said member moves, and means on the table engaged by the door for vibrating the door to aline the stalks before they are engaged by the knife 13. In'a stalk cutter, a movable member including an'upright stalk holding pocket, a hinged door'at the bottom of the pocket to support the stalks, a knife for cutting the stalks in the pocket, a horizontal table over which said member moves, a roller carrying the door on the table, and corrugations' on the table over which the roller travels to vibrate the door to aline the stalks before they are engaged by' the knife.

MAURICE P. BONVALLET. 

